Kit cannibalism

[LittleHolland]

This is my first time posting, so my apologies in advanced if this is posted in the wrong area. I am hoping for some input from people who have experienced a mom cannibalizing kits.

One of our does (6mo old) was getting ready to have her first litter. She went through one false pregnancy, but we were certain she was pregnant this time. We gave her a nest box and building materials. She refused to make the nest in the box and instead built the nest right beside it. We stuffed grass in the box, but she still refused the box. So, we had a very good suspicion she would deliver outside the NB and didn't want to remove her current nest.
We had first litter gitters, and didn't have high expectations for a viable litter as half of our moms lost their first litters.

At around 2am (when I woke up to check on her) she delivered 5 kits, on the cage floor of course, and she cannibalized every single one of them. And I don't mean nibbled an ear off. Some were missing their heads, some were clearly chewed all over and stomped on. A couple were alive, but chewed on so badly. It was awful.

She is a bit of a neurotic mess. She's constantly chewing and the only rabbit who needs/likes toys. Is there anything I can do to calm her down for her next litter? We are worried she will do this again.

Any advice or tips would be most helpful! Thank you :bunnyhop:

 

[shazza]

first time moms are notorious for getting confused up and messing up a litter. kindling outside of the nest, not building nests, not feeding them, stepping on them, etc. they're running solely on hormones and have no idea what's going on sometimes haha. cannibalism though is pretty severe and generally only happens when the kits are born dead or deformed, or if the doe is lacking calcium or protein in their feed (though this seems to be fairly rare on most commercial feeds.)

generally the consensus with bad first litters is 'don't worry about it, try again.' though if she's as neurotic as you say, you should really consider - is this something you really want to pass on to another generation? even if she did everything perfectly next time and was a great mom, if all her kits are high-strung like she is, is that a trait you want to deal with? if you just plan on eating all of her kits, maybe it's not that big of a deal, but if you plan on selling them, you need to think about 'will the person who buys my rabbits like them?'



ultimately though, first-time moms are weird and usually mess up their litters, and almost always get it right the second time. breed her again if you feel it's worth it, and see how she does then.

 

[LittleHolland]

Thank you for the input!
We had hoped she would calm down after her first litter but we want to try once more. We have been breeding for a year and the first time this has happened.

She's not totally mental, very friendly, but on the weird side for sure. Hopefully her kits don't inherit her personality but we don't want to give up on her just yet.